China’s Ministry of Health launched the second phase of a program last week that will give 200,000 Chinese women free screening for cervical cancer. The Prevention of Cervical Cancer (PCC) program will provide screening and treatment centers across the country, even in remote rural regions, reports the Xinhua News Agency. Kiani was still stoned to death on July 5, 2007. Ebrahimi’s death was stayed due to the public outcry, and last week the Iranian judiciary amnesty commission released her from prison.
This is the beginning of the second stage of the PCC program which specifically targets women in more remote regions in western China. Since the program began in 2005, 980,000 women have been screened for cervical cancer free of charge.
According to Antara News, on International Women’s Day Qiagen and the Cancer Foundation of China offered underprivileged women free testing for the human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is the virus that causes 70 percent of cervical cancers. Xinhua reports that 100,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer in China every year.
Shen Keng, a professor from the Peking Union Medical College Hospital, told Xinhua, “An immature prevention mechanism is partly to blame for the high incidence of the disease.”
